The way they are going: a study of sexual behaviour of urban young males in Puri, India

Usha Ram, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Manas Pradhan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

With changing lifestyle, youths often experiment in the process of discovering their sexuality. Besides, examining the extent and sources of information regarding sex, reproduction, contraception, STDs and HIV/AIDS, the prime focus of the present research is on the cultural and contextual factors that play crucial role in determining the risky sexual behaviour among youths particularly males. Respondents of the present study are selected using multistage random sampling. The data, collected for the present research, using both qualitative and quantitative techniques is analyzed with the help of Software packages like “SPSS” and “ATLAS Ti”. Over one third of single males in the study area have already made sexual debut, mostly unplanned (64 percent) and unsafe (80 percent) in nature. Findings from qualitative data show that unwanted fatherhood as a result of unprotected sex is not uncommon in many of the instances, which in turn leads to forced induced abortion.